


Chaos & Love

by KaytiKazoo



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Deke Shaw Has Powers, Family Feels, Fitzsimmons Family Feels, Gen, Overprotective Jemma Simmons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-15
Updated: 2020-08-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:53:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25909165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaytiKazoo/pseuds/KaytiKazoo
Summary: Deke promised when he was very young he would never use his power outside of their quarters so the Kree never found out, but he's not in space, there are no Kree, and the team may have found out. Cue Nana Jemma.
Relationships: Leo Fitz & Deke Shaw & Jemma Simmons
Comments: 6
Kudos: 58





	Chaos & Love

The first time he had a flare of his powers, he was five, and his mother had grabbed the item as it floated up in front of her. 

“Deke, honey,” she said later. “Did you touch  the obelisk?”

Deke had shaken his head and then promised her that he had been a good boy. She’d kissed his forehead and told him that  it was very cool that he could move things without touching them but he couldn’t use it where anyone else could see him. 

“Why?” he’d asked.

He’d asked it a lot as a kid, always marveling at one thing or another. 

“Some people won’t find it so cool. You need to be careful.”

So, Deke never used it, even when it ached inside of him, when  he lost everything he loved, his parents, his safety.  He’d promised, of course, and with his mother gone, he couldn’t  find the joy it took to juggle plates and spoons without lifting a finger. Years passed, and he’d almost forgotten about it. It lay inside him still, cold and dormant, weak from stagnation.  That was okay. There was no one to laugh at his juggling, or play catch with him in their quarters.

Even when the strangers from the past showed up, and some of them had powers, he couldn’t say anything. He’d promised, and his loyalty to his mother was more important than their admiration or trust.

Even when he realized that Fitz and Simmons were his mother’s parents, people he’d once called Nana and Bobo, heard the stories about how brave and wonderful they were, even then, he stayed quiet. He’d promised his mother.

One mission, he’d followed Daisy and Mack through a darkened hallway and 

“Could you quake it?” Mack asked Daisy, looking at the  panel across the way . 

“I’d probably break it,” she said. “It’s too delicate for that.”

Mack had already tried creeping across the  control room but a motion detector machine gun had shot at him. Daisy had tried to quake those, but they were hidden  behind tough  plexiglass .

“We have to figure out something, or all of those innocent civilians are going to die,” Mack said. 

Deke frowned.

“I’ve got an idea,” he said finally, “but you can’t tell anyone.”

“What?” Mack asked.

Deke reached out and  let that long dormant power  wake inside  of him,  pool in his veins and  rise to meet his expectations. It was strong and impatient,  and when he reached for the  panel, he  felt every  button as if under his  fingertips.

“Which one is it?” he asked.

“The blue button, and  the switch,”  Daisy answered.

“Okay,” he  said, hitting the blue button and then flicking the switch.  There was a mechanical whirring and then it went quiet. “Did it work?”

Mack tossed a knife from his pack out into the open space, and there was no reaction from the machine guns.

“Wonderful,” Mack said. “We’re going to be discussing that later.”

Deke frowned.

“Okay,” he said. “Let’s go get our hostages.”

When l ater came , Deke hid in the lab with Fitz and  Jemma . 

“I have something to tell you,” he said, setting his  work done. “I promised not to tell anyone, but I don’t think Mom would mind me telling  _ you _ of all people.”

Fitz and Jemma traded a glance, but Jemma smiled warmly at him.

“You can always tell us anything,” she said. 

“Okay.”

He couldn’t make himself say it, though. He knew he had to, because he could tell the team if his family said it was okay, that he was okay, that they weren’t going to turn him over to anyone. If his grandparents were okay with it, his mom would be okay with it, at least.

“Deke,” Jemma said quietly. “What is it?”

Deke didn’t know how to say it, so instead he reached out with his power and picked up  the gadget Fitz was working on, and  twirled it in the air. Fitz, without thinking, reached out and pushed the gadget back down to the  worktop surface.

“Wait,” he said after a moment, turning back to the gadget. Deke lifted it back up and  made it to a flip in the air. “What are you doing?”

“I have powers,” Deke said. “I always have, since I was a kid, but when I was young, my mom and dad made me hide them so the  Kree wouldn’t take me away. I’m not inhuman, I never went through  terrigenesis , but I have this power.”

Jemma let out a breath and watched the gadget still doing turns in the air in front of Fitz.

“That is fascinating.”

“You don’t mind?” Deke asked.

“Why would I mind?” Jemma asked, her eyes bright. He could see the thoughts whirring through her head, the biological parts of his powers if he weren’t inhuman, the questions, the curiosities. 

“I’m  _ different _ , I’m weird, I hid it from you all.”

“You did,” Fitz agreed, “but for a good reason.”

Deke looked up at Fitz, who shrugged.

“Different isn’t bad, Deke. It doesn’t mean you’re bad.”

“He’s right,” Jemma added without waiting, always ready to pick up the end of Fitz’s thought, the other half to his sentences, “you don’t have to be afraid of who you are with these powers. They don’t make you bad, and neither does hiding them. Where you came from, they were dangerous to have, so you learned to hide them away. Of course, it would take you a while to come to terms with having them outside of that time and place.”

That all made sense, of course, Jemma was highly logical and could reason anything. 

“I don’t want to be tested on,” Deke said. 

“That’s okay,” Jemma said kindly. “We won’t do any tests. These powers are your own. Your body is your own.”

“Okay,” he said. “I’m scared of what the team will say.”

“What do you mean?”

“All of the times I could have helped, I could have used my power, made it easier, safer,” Deke said. 

“Well, that’s not any of their damn business, is it?” she said indignantly. 

“Nana,” Deke said, but she was shaking her head at him.

“No, you get to decide how and when you use your powers. You have done so much for our team, for us, for this family, and you deserve a little piece of yourself that you get to keep. If anyone gives you shit, I will personally set them straight.”

Fitz chuckled from his own workstation, and then shrugged his shoulders at Deke.

“She’s your Nana, don’t look at me.”

Jemma crossed to him and put her hand on his cheek, and for a second, Deke wasn’t sure he knew what was happening. In theory, sure, he knew what affection looked like. He’d seen movies since coming to the future, after all, but most movies only focused on sex and romantic love. He hadn’t seen many that had any familial affection. He’d have to search those out when he got a chance, and if there were any, well, he was looking for his next great endeavor anyway. 

“Thank you for sharing this with us,” she said. “I know it’s got to be scary, this secret you’ve had to keep for years, but I’m glad you feel safe and comfortable with us.”

“I guess while I’m being honest, now’s the time to tell you I’m also bisexual?” Deke said.

“Oh,” Jemma said with a laugh, “that we knew, Deke.”

“Who on this team isn’t?” Fitz commented. “Congratulations, bisexuality is hereditary.”

When the team confronted him, he tried to explain that he hadn’t used it since he was a kid, and sometimes he wasn’t sure that it was real or ever had been, and he’d promised his mother that he wouldn’t show anyone, even if he trusted them. They weren’t listening, demanding to know how he could hide this, how he could be selfish and keep it to himself with how much it could have helped them.

But Jemma, his Nana, stepped forward before he could get  overwhelmed .

“Back off,” she snapped, stepping in front of him. “This is  _ Deke’s  _ power, which means that Deke is the one who gets to decide to use it. He does not owe any of us, any of  _ you _ his power. If he never uses it again, that is up to him, and if I hear one thing from any of you about it, I will make it my personal mission to not let you sleep for a week.”

Jemma was not a large woman, short and slim with delicate features. She wasn’t usually commanding either. It was the sharpest she’d ever spoken to most of them, and Deke felt something, something  _ warm _ blossom in his chest, looking at her small frame standing in front of him, protecting him. He had a flash of his mom, tucking him behind her to keep him safe.

“Simmons,” Daisy started to argue.

“This is not up for discussion or debate. You will not bother Deke. If he decides to use his powers, you may help him, but if not, you will let him be.”

She locked eyes with Daisy directly, and there was a moment between them.

“Okay,” Daisy said, hands raising in surrender.

Jemma turned around and smiled at him. 

“Are you okay?” she asked quietly.

“Yeah, Nana,” he said, and they ignored how his voice broke with the threat of tears he had never quite shed for the life he had left, for the family he’d never had, for the safety and the love he’d missed out on, “I’m okay.”

He could mourn all of that, he realized; he could mourn the life he left behind, however apocalyptic it was, and his mom, and his dad, his friends, everyone he’d ever loved. He could, and his grandparents, his Nana, his Bobo, would be there to catch him, and keep him safe, as he fell, and wept, and broke down. He was safe. He was safe. He was  _ safe _ .

**Author's Note:**

> I basically made Deke Matilda??? No regrets though  
> This was a request from an anonymous ao3 reader, so I hope you liked it!
> 
> -k


End file.
